Lifting and/or rotating body constituting a kite

ABSTRACT

A small wind-borne body is made from a sheet of paper or the like folded along the center line to provide a keel, the sheet curving upwardly and outwardly from the keel, symmetrically on both sides thereof, to provide two wings. At the front end, the two wings are brought together and fastened to each other and to the central portion close to the keel. A single flying line is attached directly to the keel somewhat rearwardly of the front end. It is usually not necessary to use a bridle connected to the body at two or more points. No tail is used, in light and moderate winds. Preferably the body is made from a single sheet, but two separate sheets may be used, fastened together along the keel. With sufficient breeze, the body will lift light objects suspended from it, and also may be made to rotate somewhat, to provide an interesting and entertaining kite.

United States iPa tent [1 1 Schaefier LIFTING AND/OR ROTATING BODY CONSTITUTING A KITE [76] inventor: William Schaefier, 67 Malling Dr., Rochester, N.Y. 14621 K [22] I Filed: Jan. 31, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 221,921

244/154, 155 R, 155 A; 46/1 L, 77

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,309,04s -3/l9 67 Kinney 244/153R I Primqry -Exaininer-Milton Buchler Assistant Examiner-Paul E. Sauberer Attorney-Charles Shepard [451 Aug. 14, 1973 [57] ABSTRACT A small wind-home body is made from a sheet of paper or the like folded along the center line to provide a keel, the sheet curving upwardly and outwardly from the keel, symmetrically on both sides thereof, to provide two wings. At the front end, the two Wings are brought together and fastened to each other and to the central portion close to the keel. A single flying line is attached directly to the keel somewhat rearwardly of the front end. It is usually not necessary to use a bridle connected to the body at two or more points. No tail is used, in light and moderate winds. Preferably the body ismade from a single sheet, but two separate sheets may be used, fastened together along the keel. With sufficient breeze, the body will lift light objects suspended from it, and also may be made to rotate somewhat, to provide an interesting and entertaining kite.

4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENTEU I4 8 SHEEI 1 (1f 2 FIG. 3

LIFTING AND/OR ROTATING BODY CONSTITUTING A KITE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to kites flown in a breeze by a person on the ground, controlling a string or flying line connected to the kite. Many forms of kites, from very simple to very elaborate ones, are known in the art and have been extensively used.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a very simple kite which can be easily and quickly made at minimum expense, and which flies-well in a light or moderate breeze without requiring a tail, or a bridle connected to thekite at two points (a direct'connection of the flying line to the keel of the kite at a single pointbeing sufficient) and which requires no struts or stiffening members.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a kite of such simple and inexpensive construction that its accidental loss is of no moment,'since the kite can be quickly reproduced in the field from a sheet of suit able paper and suitable fastening means such as staples, pins, or adhesive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an underside perspective view of a kite according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The kite of the present invention is preferably made from a single sheet of paper having about the body and stiffness of a good grade of bond papersuch as used in offices for ordinary typewritten letters. Good results are obtained by using a high grade bond paper of the weight known in the paper trade as substance 20. The

next heavier weight, substance 24, or the next lighter weight, substance 16, may be used at times, but paper lighter than substance 16 is usually not satisfactory because the paper does not hold its shape sufficiently well, and paper heavier than substance 24 is usually not satisfactory because to its. area.

The, size of the sheet may vary, of course, and the exact size is not critical. Conveniently the kite is made from paper of about the standard typewriter paper size, 8% X 11 inches. If the paper is much larger than this, a sheet of substance 20 or substance 24 paper will not be stiff enough, and it may be necessary to go to substance 28, but the added weight makes it more difi'icult to fly the kite. I

As mentioned below, two sheets fastened together may be used, and sheet material other-than paper may be used. But in the preferred construction, made from asingle sheet of paperof size 886x 1 1 inches, the sheet is first folded crosswise (that is, in the direction of the 8% inch-dimension) midway from top to bottom, forming a fold' line 11 which may be described as the keel it wighs'too much in comparison by smooth or gradual curves, rather than by sharp folds.

The two forward corners of the sheet, on opposite sides of the fold line 11, are then curved around in the manner illustrated in the drawing, and fastened to opposite sides of the keel portion a little rearwardly of the front end thereof. With the above mentioned preferred size of sheet, the distance'from thecomer 13 of the wing sections to the front end 15 of the keel is about one inch. The two opposite wing sections (right and left) have their respective comers l3 brought to the same point along the keel fold l 1, so that the construction is symmetrical on opposite sides of the keel, and the comers are fastened to each other and to the keel section by any suitable means such as the staple 17. If a stapling machine is not conveniently at hand, ordinary pins may be used, or adhesive may be used, or a short length of adhesive tape may be used, folded around the keel fold 11 and extending a short distance up each wing in the vicinity of the corner 13. H When the sheet is curved and fastened in the way above described, it will be seen that the wings at the front end of the kite will be curved rather sharply or on a small radius (see FIGS. 1 and 5) with rather small openings 21 for inflow of air. The rear comers of the sheet, however, are not fastened, and they flare outwardly on curves of much larger radius as shown at 25 in FIGS. 1, 2, and 4. Toward the rear end of the kite, there will be a V-shaped long itudinaltrough 27 just above the keel fold 11, the sides of which trough become steeper or "closer together toward the front end of the kite, because at the front end the two sides of the trough are held tight together by the staple 17 which passes through the two forward comers of the wings as well as through the. two layers of material just above the keel 11. The resultis that the two wings, on opposite sides of the keel, flare out laterally to an increasing extent from front to rear, and with a more gentle curvature or larger radius of curvature progressively from front to rear. The exact shape is hard to describe and illustrate, but will be readily understood if one will take apiece of paper and fold and curve it and fasten it in the manner above described.

A great many kites need what is called a bridle to attach the kite to the flying line, the function of the bridle being to hold the kite at a particular angle to the horizontal, or at a certain angle of attack" with respect to the relative wind. Tests show, however, that a bridle is not necessary when flying the present kite, at least under average wind conditions. The flight line, illustrated at 31, is attached directly to the kite without any intervening bridle, attachment being made to the keel 11 at a point 33 a little forward of the mid-point of the length of the keel. Attachment may be made by putting a pinhole through the sheet at the keel fold, and inserting the flying line through the pinhole and forming a large knot in the line so that it will not pull through the hole.

Some experiment may be necessary to determine the exact location at which to fasten the flying line, to obof the kite. This is the only sharp fold Inade in thesheet.

tain the best flying conditions. One can try moving the flying line a fraction of an inch forward or backward, along the keel, until a location is found which seems to give the best results under the wind conditions of the day. On another day when wind conditions are different, another point of attachment of the flying line, a littie farther forward or a little farther back, may be preferable.

To trim the kite, the forward corner of the keel portion may be bent a little to one side or the other, bending it along the dotted line 41 shown in FIG. 3. If the kite has a tendency to fly to one side or the other, due to slight non-symmetry in folding, curving, and fastening the sheet, this can be corrected by the above described slight bending of the forward corner of the keel.

Another bend which is often advantageous is to bend the rear corners of the wings slightly upwardly. That is, the corners indicated at 45 may be curled up a little, which seems to give improved flying characteristics. After the kite has been otherwise formed, these corners 45 are simply grasped by the fingers and curled a little in an upward direction, repeating this several times until the paper or other sheet material will retain a slight upward curl extending through an inch or so at each corner.

A noteworthy feature of the present kite is its simplicity. It requires no tail, at least in a light or moderate breeze, although a conventional tail may be desirable in a strong wind. It has no sticks or struts or stiffening members, but relies entirely on the stiffness of the sheet itself to keep it in proper shape. It requires no material other than the sheet itself and a suitable fastener such as the staple 17, or adhesive or pins at the same location. It requires no bridle, the flying line being attached directly to the kite, in light or moderate breeze. in a strong wind, a bridle may be attached to the keel at two spaced points, and the flying line may be fixed to an intermediate point of the bridle.

As above mentioned, the kite is preferably made from a single sheet of paper. It is possible, however, to make it of two sheets joined to each other along the keel 11, either by staples placed at intervals along the keel, or by adhesive tape or other adhesive fastening the sheets to each other. It is also possible to use'sheets of plastic material instead of paper, using plastic material that has about the same degree of stiffness or rigidity as the preferred paper above mentioned.

The attachment of the flying line (or the bridle, when one is used) to the keel 11 may be done in various ways. As already mentioned, a knotted string may extend through a pinhole made in the sheet at a suitable point along the keel fold l 1. Or a series of metal eyelets or grommets may be placed in the sheet material at intervals along the keel just above the fold, the flying line I being passed through and tied to any selected one of the eyelets and being moved from one to another until the best location under prevailing wind conditions is found. Or a strip of double-faced adhesive tape may extend along oneside of the keel, parallel to the fold l1, and a piece of adhesive tape at the end of the flying line may be pressed against the exposed face of the double faced tape on the kitebody, to attach the line to the body. This permits the line to be pulled loose and reconnected to the body at a different location, easily and as many times as desired.

The bending of the front comer 15 on or approximately on the line indicated at 41, can have important results. A slight bend can be used to trim the kite, to make it fly along a path in the same vertical plane as the flying line or string. A greater degree of bending will cause the kite to rotate to one side or the other of such vertical plane, producing an interesting and attentionattracting flight, and sometimes will cause it to spin or rotate on its horizontal axis, attracting much attention because of its unusual movements.

What is claimed is:

1. A kite formed of rectangular sheet material sharply folded along a center line to form a keel, the two forward corners of the sheet material being smoothly curved outwardly, downwardly, and inwardly to the keel and being fastened to the keel on opposite sides thereof at a point less than twenty percent of the distance from the front end of the keel to the rear end thereof, the two rear comers of the sheet material being spaced from the keel and free of any restraint except by the inherent stiffness of the sheet material, and a single flying line attached to the keel at a point materially rearwardly of the point where said forward corners are fastened to the keel and only slightly forwardly of the mid-point of the length of the keel.

2. A kite as claimed in claim 1, wherein the front corners of the wings lie against the keel at a point approximately twelve percent of the distance from the front end of the keel to the rear end thereof.

3. A kite as defined in claim 1, wherein the two thicknesses of the sheet material forming the keel are held tightly together in the vicinity of the front corner of the keel, and such front corner is bent slightly laterally to trim the kite so that it will fly straight into the wind notwithstanding any slight non-symmetry of the two wing portions.

4. A kite as defined in claim 1, wherein the two thicknesses of the sheet material forming the keel are held tightly together in the vicinity of the front corner of the keel, and such front corner is bent laterally to a sufficiently great extent to cause the kite to fly at a substantial horizontal angle to the direction of the wind. 

1. A kite formed of rectangular sheet material sharply folded along a center line to form a keel, the two forward corners of the sheet material being smoothly curved outwardly, downwardly, and inwardly to the keel and being fastened to the keel on opposite sides thereof at a point less than twenty percent of the distance from the front end of the keel to the rear end thereof, the two rear corners of thE sheet material being spaced from the keel and free of any restraint except by the inherent stiffness of the sheet material, and a single flying line attached to the keel at a point materially rearwardly of the point where said forward corners are fastened to the keel and only slightly forwardly of the mid-point of the length of the keel.
 2. A kite as claimed in claim 1, wherein the front corners of the wings lie against the keel at a point approximately twelve percent of the distance from the front end of the keel to the rear end thereof.
 3. A kite as defined in claim 1, wherein the two thicknesses of the sheet material forming the keel are held tightly together in the vicinity of the front corner of the keel, and such front corner is bent slightly laterally to trim the kite so that it will fly straight into the wind notwithstanding any slight non-symmetry of the two wing portions.
 4. A kite as defined in claim 1, wherein the two thicknesses of the sheet material forming the keel are held tightly together in the vicinity of the front corner of the keel, and such front corner is bent laterally to a sufficiently great extent to cause the kite to fly at a substantial horizontal angle to the direction of the wind. 